Reviewing a practitioner enquiry: reflecting on your leadership journey
Throughout this enquiry cycle we have encouraged you to reflect on your own professional learning journey.
Educators change their beliefs through changing their practice and reflecting on the result. Therefore effective professional learning should not only impact upon learners but also upon the professional development and identity of the educator themselves.
Professional Development and Teacher Change (researchgate.net) describes Guskey’s work on professional development and teacher change.
We have curated a list of resources to help you consider collective efficacy, the purpose of education and the connection between our learning as educators and the learning of our learners.
This is central to the National Model of Professional Learning which states that the educator’s professional learning should be informed by the learner’s experience, voice and needs. In turn, the professional learning of the educator should impact positively upon the experiences of learners.
Prompts for Reflection:
- Look back over your reflective journal; what is the story of your professional learning journey through this enquiry cycle? Use your professional standards to support your reflection.
- The National Model of Professional Learning has Leadership of and for learning as a key component, stating that leaders in the widest sense understand that people are the drivers and enactors of change for improvement. In what way does practitioner enquiry put this into action?
- Have a look at the following statements from practitioners about what they consider to be educator leadership – what resonates with you? Is there anything you would add or challenge? You may want to write your own definition to describe how you see your own leadership identity.
- “Taking ownership of my own teaching practice, being able to reflect and draw conclusions and changing where it is needed.”
- “We are all leaders, influencing change, leading learners and others, encouraging others to take ownership and lead their own learning.”
- “Leadership is not just about one person leading it is about a collaborative approach making change for the better.”
- “…whenever a teacher gets curious and makes changes there are ripples and that this can be as transformative as an official directive from a designated Leader.”
- “Being a conduit for change. In your own practice and the place where you work for the wider good. Having the confidence to speak up and try things. Being able to help and support others who may have similar ideas or issues that you've considered in your professional life, even if it hasn't formed part of a formal professional enquiry process
The concept of collective efficacy is rooted in Albert Bandura's ideas of self-efficacy. He defines collective efficacy as “a group’s shared belief in the conjoint capabilities to organize and execute the courses of action required to produce given levels of attainment.”
Bandura found that the positive effects of collective efficacy on academic performance outweighs the negative effects of low socioeconomic status.
Although this research was conducted with teachers, we feel that the concept of collective efficacy demonstrates what it means to be an educator leader. Through our shared actions we will make a positive impact on our learners, their families, our local community and the education system.
The videos below will help you consider collective efficacy, the purpose of education and the connection between our learning as educators and the learning of our learners.
This is central to the National Model of Professional Learning which states that the educator’s professional learning should be informed by the learner’s experience, voice and needs. In turn, the professional learning of the educator should impact positively upon the experiences of learners.
Please note the majority of these researchers have looked at the impact on teachers. However the concepts are applicable to all educators.
Video resources
Foundations of Collective Efficacy
PD Models to support Collective Efficacy
Information About What Works Best For Learning (visible-learning.org)
The following brings us back to considering the purpose of education and our roles as leaders of learning within this. The first describes some of the key concepts (and critiques of those) in Paulo Freire’s work Pedagogy of the Oppressed. This work may be more familiar to those coming from a CLD background and again the concepts are applicable to all educators:
- Education as dialogue with respect, as educators working with learners rather than educators acting on the learners – a shift in the power dynamic
- Praxis – that is action informed by and linked to a set of core values
- Building a pedagogy of hope; a lot of the text concerns the transformative power of education
- Situating educational activity in the lived experiences of participant.
Paulo Freire: dialogue, praxis and education – infed.org
The second resource comes from SLF Conversations 2022 and the work of Dr Santiago Rincon-Gallardo. We have these in the form of a video and also two podcasts – they have similar content and focus on his extensive research and recent work on Liberating Learning.
Some key concepts to look out for:
- Learning to learn rather than learning to be taught - learning is a practice of freedom
- The pedagogical core – the link between the educator, learner and knowledge. The place where change happens!
- Educational change as a social movement and the transformative power of education
- And perhaps fittingly for us as enquirers: “Learning is the process and the result of making sense of questions that matter to us”.
Liberating Learning: Video link https://youtu.be/rnnVk8ZdOP8 from SLF Conversations, where you can also find a copy of his presentation.
Changing Conversations with Santiago Rincon-Gallardo:
1: E90. Liberating Learning with Santiago Rincon-Gallardo | Listen Notes
2: E92. Stimulating Change with Santiago Rincon-Gallardo | Listen Notes
